Colleges do Little to Stop Binge Drinking

Unsurprisingly, college students still drink. But shockingly, a recent report found that colleges are doing little to stop them.

Toben Nelson, with the University of Minnesota, and his colleagues found that merely two percent of businesses increased alcohol prices in college communities, only 7 percent limited the number of alcohol outlets, only 15 percent mandated server training and only one-third executed compliance checks for underage purchasers.

Nelson studied 351 college administrators’ responses to an online questionnaire. When administrators were asked whether they had followed the U.S.’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s 2002 recommendations on lessening college drinking, the study found that few colleges were in complete compliance.

Nelson found that there was “very little action on the task force recommendations and very little implementation.” He also said in a news release that “very few had even had conversations in the communities.”

The survey also found that 22 percent of college administrators were unaware of the alcohol task force.

In other binge-drinking related studies: Two of every five 8th graders and three out of every four high school seniors have consumed alcohol. Even more worrisome, when underage drinkers drink, they drink heavily.

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “eleven percent of 8th graders and 29 percent of 12th graders have engaged in binge drinking within the past two weeks.”

Both studies conclude that college communities and parents alike must be proactive in preventing underage binge drinking.